Family Research Council Statement on Pentagon Decision Delaying Transgender Mandate

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Family Research Council (FRC) acknowledged today's decision by the Pentagon's to delay the full implementation of the Obama era transgender policy as a good first step. A Rasmussen survey released this morning finds "just 23% of likely U.S. voters think the U.S. military's decision to allow openly transgender people to serve is good for the military."

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, former U.S. Army Delta Force commander and current Family Research Council executive vice president, released the following statement:

"The Pentagon is right to hit the brakes on a policy that will fail to make our military more capable in performing its mission to fight and win wars. It's good that the nation's military leadership realizes what the American people realize, this policy makes no sense.

"The military has been reduced to stripping parts from museums, which is why it makes no sense to spend more than a billion taxpayer dollars on new body parts for anyone who joins the military and identifies as transgender. After lost deployment and other costs are factored in, taxpayers could be on the hook for as much as $3.7 billion over the next ten years. Spending billions of dollars on transgender surgeries and treatment plans, when the military has other priorities that would actually ensure its effectiveness in war, is irresponsible.

"However, the cost to readiness, recruitment, retention, morale and cohesion will be even greater. Personnel who identify as transgender are expected to receive exceptions to policies and medical requirements that their peers will still be required to meet. These exceptions may be applied to policies about everything from physical and mental fitness standards to dress and presentation standards, and they create an unfairness that will undermine unit cohesion and morale.

"These serious concerns no doubt motivated the military service chiefs to request a delay.

"Now, Secretary Mattis and Congress need to ensure the priorities of the U.S. armed forces remain those that the Secretary has outlined: mission readiness, command proficiency, and combat effectiveness. These should be the new priorities, not the last administration's social engineering projects that ignore military readiness," concluded Boykin.